went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed
by aloxi
Summary: ...Maybe Jade might, like, smile at her. Just a little. Not one of those smiles she gives Beck, but maybe a little one. / Or, Tori maybe sort of attempts to celebrate Jade's birthday. In a friendly kind of way. Naturally.


Jade can't really _mean _it when she says she doesn't like birthdays, right? Really, who doesn't like birthdays? Exactly. _Nobody. _Which actually doesn't really explain why Tori feels such a huge urge to _do something _for Jade's birthday, except it'd be so cool if it was the opposite way around (that's totally never going to happen, but whatever, you know, she has dreams— _day_dreams, like, not awkward stare-into-space-thinking-about-Jade-dreams, that would be Sinjin-level weird. Yeah).

So somehow Tori finds herself in the kitchen, peeling the wrap off one of the cupcakes her mom had made the day before in celebration of Trina getting a B+ on some project, and then clambering through the cabinets until she finds a can of icing. It's the kind you can spray right from the tip, and ugh, she messes up three cupcakes before she manages to write "_Happy b'day Jade" _in frothy purple icing (Jade likes purple, Tori remembers that, because yellow and orange had been in her latest video under the heading "neon colors I hate." And well, if she actually doesn't _like _purple she at least doesn't hate it, and that's the Jade equivalent of like, basically).

Tori is actually pretty proud of it, y'know, to be honest, and maybe it's kindasorta lame but when she's putting a Tupperware container over it so Trina doesn't come sniffing around wanting to know why she made Jade a cupcake and not her, Tori imagines that maybe when she gives it to Jade tomorrow when they're all sitting in the Asphalt Café before school starts, maybe Jade might, like, smile at her. Just a little. Not one of those smiles she gives Beck, but maybe a little one, because even Cat bows to the demand not to mention her birthday and so even though she insists she doesn't like it, somewhere on the inside she might be just a little bit happy Tori tried hard anyway, right? (Because that's what friends do, they do stuff you say you don't want but really you do, and she and Jade aren't, like _best _friends or anything, but they're like, friendship-bracelet-level, if Tori ever wanted to get out that out friendship-bracelet-making-kit in the back of her closet and maybe, you know. Make one. It would have to be black though, and purple, possibly, depending on her reaction to the icing. And it would have to have one of those lacy-looking patterns, because Jade likes wearing lacy stuff— like _clothes, _not like, well, yeah, Tori wouldn't know that. Beck would.)

Honestly, she half-expects Trina to have found Jade's birthday-cupcake and eaten it for a "pre-breakfast snack" (supposedly it helps your metabolism but in actuality it means Trina having an excuse to take her breakfast if she gets the last of something good). But no, it's still there, neat and not smeared at all under the Tupperware, and it's only when she's at school and walking to the Asphalt Café to wait for everyone else that Tori thinks she probably shouldn't give it to her in front of everyone. Jade would probably act mad no matter what she thought, just so nobody else thought she was _going soft _or whatever, and Tori really doesn't want Jade to have to act. It must get so old. So instead she veers off course and heads to Jade's locker. Where she's promptly greeted with Jade and Beck making out.

Her cupcake isn't nearly that good in comparison.

Well, _no, _not like _that, _just— she feels kind of like a creeper, really, just standing there, but they don't notice her, and Beck pulls back just a little bit and Jade smiles at him, teeth sliding over her bottom lip, and her cheeks are kind of pink. Tori really doesn't know why people always use that dumb "butterflies in my stomach" metaphor because you know, it feels more like nails or something.

All she really wanted to do was make Jade kind of, sort of happy on her birthday, but why she thought Beck wouldn't beat her to it escapes her. Well, to be honest Tori sort of thought it would end up being one of those days where they hardly talk because Beck was putting up with some girl flirting with him or was teasing Jade about some other chick again— that happened, that happened _a lot, _and Tori really does like Beck (he's the funniest guy sort of in forever and he hardly ever loses his temper), but she can't help but, you know, _not like it _when he does that. He can get Jade under control again, sure, but, well— probably it's because he's a guy and he doesn't get how much it hurts to think that maybe you aren't as important to someone as they are to you—

Beck and Jade are kissing again and yeah, Tori's getting a little uncomfortable.

"Tori! Hey, hey Tori!"

Cat grabs Tori's arm to stop from going skidding past, wearing her signature bow and her signature grin. "Hey, Andre's waiting for us. Ooh, is that a cupcake?"

She nods. All she wants to do, she realizes, is sit with Andre and try to help him write songs even though she's horrible at it and have him call her _baby _and smile at her, because at least _somebody _would. "Yeah, yeah it's— hey, why don't you give it to Jade? You know, for her birthday?"

Cat's face lights up (more than usual, anyway) as Tori hands it to her. "Kay kay! Oh my gosh, Jade _loves _purple."

Figures.

.

And, yeah, okay, maybe Jade sort of, kind of, smiles just a tiny little bit at Cat when she gives the cupcake to her in Improv. She scowls a second later, though, so Tori isn't _positive, _you know, because she doesn't watch Jade's face all the time or anything. That's Sinjin's territory.

Still. Doesn't matter.

(Nope.)

* * *

><p><strong>an: **me and sami talk a lot about jori. this is one of the things we talked about (also she mentioned friendship bracelets, so please direct love for that part over to her :D). also yeah yeah my titles never not suck let's not bring it up hokay.


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